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This is directed towards those lucky/brave enough to use VS 2005 (I did try it for all of 2 seconds - removed it when it wouldn't compile my C programs), but I digress...

Anyhoo, will VS 2005 allow compiling of C/C++ programs or will it be .Net only ?

You could downoad VC++ express beta and try for yourself?

Tried it - wouldn't compile my C programs (as I said previously).

I just wondered if anyone knew what the final product will be - a C/C++ compiler (along with .Net) or whether it will be .Net only.

I doubt it will be just .net because microsoft try to always make things backwards compatable.

Hopefully 2005 will do both - VS 7 is being a bit long-in-the-tooth now, especially as it has had no updates to fix a few bugs that it has.

You can compile .NET and Win32 (actually ELF and Pure Binary too), only .NET is "out-of-the-box" setup though.

This changes for the retail version due in a few months apparently.
For now though if you want to create a Win32 Application, you have no Visual Resource Editor, and you have to change the Executable settings from the 'Console' executable.

For .NET as I said it's setup to be ready to go as soon as you install it, with several application wizards and the .NET libraries being able to self-reference themselves. (meaning you don't even have to touch any options.)

Currently the only way to get current VC 6/7.x Programs to compile with it, is to install the Platform SDK, then manually set EVERYTHING up. Right now I'm fighting with the libraries that need to be added to get it compiling nicely. Given these versions are free (and Microsoft realised that the Beta 1 Win32 Wizard actually allowed people to replace thier previous VC .. and as such changed it so you have to manually make the compile changes), Microsoft aren't willing to openly help right now on how to achieve this.

What I'd suggest though is Installing the PDK then setup the directories, when you convert other VC to 8.0 SLN it should quite happily compile using the original project settings.

For the moment it's actually far easier to develop for Linux/Unix using VC8 than it is Windows ... but I don't think Microsoft have realised this yet.

Could ask the guys on Microsoft's Forums: http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/